My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S02E17 “Welcome to Storybrooke”

TRIGGER WARNING! If you are sensitive to spoilers and you haven’t seen the seventeenth episode of the second season of Once Upon a Time,”Welcome to Storybrooke”, then you might not want to view this post without consulting your support team first.

Being a good single  mom, having a fulfilling day job and crushing your enemies beneath your feet, can a woman have it all? Regina seems to think so.

This episode is all about having your cake and eating it too.

Although, through the use of magic, I believe that an “infinity cake” is probably possible…

owen flynn (played by benjamin james stockham) and his father, kurt flynn (played by john pyper-ferguson) bond around a campfire
Here, kid, have a dealie.

Meet Owen Flynn and Kurt Flynn. They’re two “normies” from the real world that are about to feel the full brunt of Regina’s reactive attachment disorder.

the crotch of sheriff graham (played by jamie dornan)
I’d know that crotch anywhere!

Part of this episode takes place in the early days of Storybrooke, just after the curse was cast, so, of course, they break out their secret sexy weapon…

the face of sheriff graham (played by jamie dornan)
Skinny hipster tie…

It’s Sheriff Tight-Pants… Er, Sheriff Hipster… Er, I mean, Sheriff Sexy… Whoops! No, it’s Sheriff Graham!

Methinks that the writers are really regretting killing-off Sheriff Graham. All the ladies love him! I mean, look at him, standing there with his face and junk. WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE!?

Look at that skinny tie! It’s amazing!

Mary margaret (played by ginnifer goodwin) can't get out of be because she is too sad
ANGST COMA

Anyhoo, Mary Margret has to stay in bed for the rest of her life, because she just feels so bad after the whole “killing Cora” thing. She murdered millions of henchmen as Snow White and didn’t care at all! Snow White’s black and white morality apparently only applies to main characters. Actually, in this entire show, it’s only he lives of the main characters that matter.

Later on in this episode, Regina pulls out Mary’s heart and we see that it has a black spot, because apparently that’s what happens to your heart when you trick a person into killing their own mother. Methinks Mary, in upcoming episodes, is going to do as many good deeds as possible, in order to erase the darkness from her heart and finally become a real boy.

She should just seek out Mother Superior and repent to God. That would be faster.

*ASIDE* Why are all the fairies still dressed up as nuns? You’d figure that magic and such would be incompatible with the Catholic belief system.

regina mills (played by lana parrilla) and owen flynn (played by benjamin james stockham) look into an oven
Shove the kid inside! You know you want to.

Regina falls absolutely in love with Owen Flynn. I don’t know why, though. The kid spends the entire episode being an obnoxious butt.

She’s so in love with him that she attempts to steal the damn kid away from his father, but it doesn’t work out so well. Owen Flynn manages to escape Storybrooke, leaving his father behind.

We haven’t seen or heard anything about Kurt Flynn until this episode. Where has Kurt been this whole time? Is he in Regina’s vault? Several characters saw him and his son. Why hasn’t anyone mentioned anything about it? It will probably be handwaved away with “the cursed messed up everyone’s memories”. Magic makes covering up plotholes too easy.

neal cassidy (played by michael raymond james) gives his son henry played by jared s. gilmore) a sundae
Unmoved by the delicious bribe.

Neal Cassidy tries to use ice cream to bribe Henry into leaving Storybrooke. Henry decides that he’d rather stay and try to blow up all the magic instead. Luckily Regina shows up just in time to tell Henry that “You can’t just blow up all your problems, son”. Screw that, explosions always solve everything! Why the dwarves of Storybrooke are just leaving their dynamite unattended,  in a world where everyone is trying to kill eachother, I will never know.

At the end of the episode, we find out that Greg Mendell is really Owen Flynn, because, on this show, everyone has to have at least two identities, even people from the real world. Soon, we’re going to find out that Henry is really one of the sugar plum fairies from Fantasia

Anyway, Greg Mendell/Owen Flynn is back in Storybrooke to find his father, who will now, presumably, be around the same age as him and, oh, how there will be angst and drama because of it. There are only 5 episodes left in this season and I doubt that this plotline will be resolved in that time. I dislike when they shoehorn in 11th hour plotlines so that they will have something to carry over into the next season.

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S02E16 “The Miller’s Daughter”

WARNING! This post contains spoilers for the sixteenth episode of the second season of Once Upon a Time, The Miller’s Daughter. If you haven’t seen that episode, then don’t read this post, lest you be spoiled for all time. Also, I may get a little blue this time round.

This episode made me feel dirty and not in a fun way. It was more of a “why is this network TV show turning all softcore-porny” dirty.

This episode seemed like 12 hours of a creepy imp hardcore macking on Rose McGowan. That’s because that’s what it was. Robert Carlyle’s sexual aura bent time and turned an hour show into 12 hours. This has been proven by finest hobo physicists in the field of hobo physics.

rumpelstiltskin (played by robert carlyle) kissing a young cora (played by rose mcgowan)
First he was like…
rumpelstiltskin (played by robert carlyle) kissing a young cora (played by rose mcgowan) again
Then he was like…
rumpelstiltskin (played by robert carlyle) kissing a young cora (played by rose mcgowan) yet again
And then the fangirls grabbed their torches and pitchforks and marched on the ABC studios.

I don’t think Robert Carlyle was even acting here. I think this was for real. This wasn’t family-friendly. But, hey, you get the chance to get kinda nasty with Rose McGowan, you take it.

Er… So, anyway, I guess I should walk about the plot and stuff.

  • Cora was a miller’s daughter
  • Eva, Snow White’s mom, was mean to Cora because of Cora’s low social standing
  • Rumpelstiltskin helps Cora learn magic through the power of hot making out
  • Cora becomes a duchess or something

Remember how I said that I didn’t think that Rumpelstiltskin was Regina’s father? I think that this episode confirms that. See, Cora and Rumpelstiltskin’s deal was that their first child together would belong to Rumpelstiltskin, but Cora decides to end her relationship with Rumpelstiltskin and marry Henry. Also, if Regina was Rumpelstiltskin’s daughter, he’d have power over her, right? He can’t seem to control Regina at all.

Of course, we’ve seen shapeshifting on this show. Rumpelstiltskin could have just made himself look like Henry and… Doesn’t it count as rape by fraud if you use your magic powers to make a person think that you’re someone you’re not? We need a magic lawyer to sort these things out. Anyway, if he did shapeshift into Henry, then it would be possible for Regina to be his daughter.

Oh, wait, wasn’t it implied in a first season episode that Jefferson was Regina’s half-brother? Maybe, Regina is the child of Cora and Henry, and, Jefferson is the child of Cora and Rumpelstiltskin. It would explain why Jefferson was working for Rumpelstiltskin.

The family trees on this show are already pretty complicated. Would the writer’s want to complicate them even further?

Also, I wish that there weren’t two character’s named “Henry” on  this show. A couple of those above paragraphs are really gross, if you’re thinking about the wrong Henry.

I need to go have myself a lie-down. I’m getting weird.

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S02E12 “In the Name of the Brother”

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen episode 12 of season 2 of Once Upon a Time, In the Name of the Brother, then you might not want to read this.

We learned something important about Dr. Whale/Victor Frankenstein in this episode. We learned that he is much more fun when he is drunk.

Also, he turned his brother into a sexy monster, or something, and it ended up traumatizing him.

Everything is sexy on this show, especially Sexy Igor.

sexy igor (played by yurij kis) in the black and white land
What hump?

Why does everything on this show have to be so sexy? Igor can’t have a hunch on this show? No, everyone must be beautiful!

Victor Frankenstein (played by
Good as new!

Even when Victor Frankenstein brings his brother, Gerhardt, back from the dead, he’s still sexy. He’s hardly rotten or scarred-up or anything. Methinks you shouldn’t be able to look at Frankenstein’s monster and think, “Hey, that guy’s kind of cute!”, but that’s just my opinion.

rumpelstiltskin (played by robert carlyle) kisses belle (played by emilie de ravin) while she is unconscious
Dude! Not cool!

Rumpelstiltskin kissed Belle while she was unconscious and she freaked out.

How does consent for unconscious fairytale kissing work? Is it implied consent if your kiss wakes the person up? Well, Rumpelstiltskin is in the real world here and he should obey the law of the land and the law says that molesting unconscious people is uncool.

rumpelstiltskin (played by robert carlyle) kiss cora (played by barbara hershey) to seal a deal
Ew.

Rumpelstiltskin also kisses Cora, because that’s apparently what they used to do in the old days.

The People that make this show want us to think that Rumpelstiltskin is Regina’s real father, but my money is on Rumpelstiltskin not being her father and also having been involved in a romantic relationship with Regina. You know, for that extra “ew” factor.

rumpelstiltskin (played by robert carlyle) pours a pile of gold on the floor of the black and white laboratory of frankenstein (played by david anders)
IT’S THE WRONG COLOUR!

THAT GOLD IS THE WRONG COLOUR FOR THIS UNIVERSE! GOLD IN THIS UNIVERSE IS GREY! EVERYTHING IS GREY! IF YOU TRY TO SPEND THAT GOLD IN THIS UNIVERSE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO FREAK OUT BECAUSE THEY ARE SEEING COLOURS THAT THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE!

I really don’t know why Victor Frankenstein wasn’t freaking out in this scene. And, really, that gold is unspendable in the black & white universe, seriously.

There was also some jazz about an outsider coming to Storybrooke and everyone is afraid that he’s going to tell the outside world about the town. But, hey, wouldn’t outsiders have had to have been to Storybrooke before, when they were checking on Regina to see if she was a suitable parent for Henry, right?

Why do I keep questioning the logic on this show? It’s pointless. I’m so ashamed of myself.

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time Episode S02E10 “The Cricket Game” & Episode S02E11 “The Outsider”

OI! If you haven’t seen episodes 10 and 11 of season 2 of Once Upon a Time, then you might not want to read this.

I don’t really have much to say about these episodes, other than that they seemed to be mostly about time-wasting and stalling the storyline.

The Cricket Game stalls the “Regina’s Redemption” storyline, by making it look like she murdered Archie/Jiminy, but she really didn’t and everyone finds out that she didn’t really commit murder in the very next episode thereby making this episode completely pointless. But, I guess we have to see Regina suffer a bit more because DRAMA.

The Outsider stalls the “Rumpelstiltskin and Baelfire Reunion” storyline, by first taking Rumpel’s magical macguffin that lets him leave town and keep his memory and then having Captain Hook shoot Belle across the town border and having her lose her memory. So, now Rumpelstilskin has to stay in Storybrooke and look after Belle for a couple of episodes, instead of looking for Baelfire, I’m betting.

Some Problems:

  • Hook has never seen a modern gun before. How was he so sure that the bullet would only make Belle stumble over the townline and not, in fact, kill her?
  • How come nobody seems to care anymore that Sneezy the dwarf has lost his memory? They seemed really keen to fix that earlier and now nobody seems to remember it even happening.
  • Why do the characters on this show always leave their enemies alive? They mow through various underlings, henchmen and mooks without a care in the world, but when it comes to taking the big boss down, they always develop morals, all of a sudden. Hey, henchmen have families too, you know?

Anyway, next episode looks like it’s going to be a Victor Frankenstein episode. I hope that they bring back Sexy Igor!

Once Upon a Time Catch Up

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen Once Upon a Time episodes 2 through 5, you might not want to read this article.

Due to an illness and server troubles, I haven’t been keeping up with posting as many Once Upon a Time articles as I’d like to. So, here are some little summaries of my thoughts on episodes 2 through 5.

S02E02: We Are Both

a screencap of regina mill (played by Lana Parrilla) breathing in some magic
Magic smells good!
  • Ugh. They’re making magic analogousness to drugs. So, does that only mean that evil magic is like drugs and good magic is like prescription drugs? Because, no one has any problem with the magic that the fairies use. Seems like a broken aesop to me.
  • Going over the town line means that you lose your fairy tale memories and are only left with your Storybrooke memories. Rumpelstiltskin never had any Storybrooke persona. Would he lose his entire memory or would he gain a Storybrooke persona, if he went over the town line? Also, who went over the town line to get Henry?

S02E03: Lady of the Lake

a screencap of emma swan (played by jennifer morrison) being smelled by an ogre
Emma smells good!
  • Charming’s mother dies needlessly in this episode! It’s a world full of magic! They most definitely could have found something other than the magic lake water to cure Snow White elsewhere.
  • “Hey, Emma, ogres hunt by sound!” Emma: “I’mma fire my gun for no good reason!”
  • An awul lot of the Enchanted Forest seems to exist still. I though most of it was supposed to be a void?

S02E04: The Crocodile

a screencap of rumpelstiltskin (played by robert carlyle) and captain hook (played by Colin O'Donoghue)
Rumpelstiltskin and Captain Hook smell good!
  • So, Rumpelstiltskin is now the Fairygodmother from Cinderella, the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, the Dark One and the crocodile from Peter Pan. They need to stop making Rumpelstiltskin every character from every book. I mean, I love watching Robert Carlyle chew the scenery, but, seriously, this is getting to be too much.
  • Sexy Captain Hook? EVERYTHING MUST BE SEXY!
  • How did Rumpelstiltskin get such a sexy wife in the first place?

S02E05: The Doctor

a screencap of sexy igor (played by Yurij Kis)
Sexy Igor smells good!
  • Regina had a whole vault full of hearts. Why couldn’t Victor Frankenstein just ask for an extra one? Why did he have to trick her out of a heart?
  • Sexy Igor? Well, at least it wasn’t angry teenage Igor.
  • Why isn’t Frankenstein black and white everywhere that he goes? (It’s definitely due to budgetary constraints, but still…)

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S02E01 “Broken”

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen Broken, the first episode of  the second season of Once Upon a Time, then you probably shouldn’t read this. I’m too lazy to provide the requisite expository text,  for a person that hasn’t seen this episode, to understand this article, anyway.

I don’t really feel like running through the whole episode, so I’ll just go through my thoughts on a few things about it.

a screencap of a mysterious man
MYSTERIOUS MAN

At the start of the episode, we meet a new character and never learn who he is. Who he is ins’t really important, though, because he doesn’t actually do anything in the episode. Most people are going to say that he is Baelfire, but I think that would be too easy.

Here are some things around his apartment that may be clues to his identity.

a screepcap of a cleaner & hatters sign in the mystery man's apartment
MYSTERIOUS SHOP SIGN

He has a sign for a hatter’s shop. Was it from Jefferson, the mad hatter’s shop? Is our mystery man from Wonderland?

a screencap of a skateboard deck with the letters "NSNO" visible. the rest is obscured
MYSTERIOUS SKATEBOARD DECK

He has a skateboard deck with the letters “NSNO” visible, or, since you can rotate these letters 180°, “ONSN”. So, it’s either a word ending with “NSNO”, or a word starting with “ONSN”. I couldn’t think of any. If you know anyway, please tell me in the comments.

a screencap of a monocle and a pocket watch hanging on the mystery man's wall
MYSTERIOUS MONOCLE & POCKET WATCH

He has a pocket watch and a monocle hanging on his wall. The white rabbit carries a pocket watch, re-enforcing my Wonderland theory. Multiple Disney characters have monocles. I’m not sure which monocle-wearing character would be most likely.

a screencap of ballet slippers in the mystery man's apartment
MYSTERIOUS BALLET SLIPPERS

There are some ballet slippers on his wall. Maybe, he’s one of the dancing hippos or gators from Fantasia.

a screencap of a dreamcatcher hanging on the mystery man's wall
MYSTERIOUS DREAMCATCHER

He also has a dreamcatcher. I don’t really know if he looks Native American, or not. It is possible that he is John Smith, or one of the other colonists.

a screencap of a postcard that reads "broken"
What is broken?

Lot’s of people are going to assume that the “Broken” on this postcard mean that the curse has been broken. Lots of things could be broken. Maybe, the word “broken” here doesn’t even mean “broken”. Maybe, it’s code. You don’t know.

a screencap of the front of a postcard that reads "greetings from storybrooke maine"
Storybrooke is broken?

Was this postcard actually sent from Storybrooke, or, was it sent from a different location with the Storybooke picture as a clue for our mystery gentleman?

a screepcap of princess aurora and prince phillip sharing true love's kiss
Current “True Love’s Kiss” Tally: 1

Here are our new royals: Princess Aurora II Electric Boogaloo and Prince Phillip Neckerchief Hipster. I say Aurora II because this Aurora mentions that her mother had to deal with Maleficent as well.

a screepcap of mulan
Mulan

We also have Mulan as a new character. She doesn’t really do much, except be a warrior and angry.

a screencap of a wraith
It’s a dementor! No… It’s a ringwraith!

So, we have wraiths attacking people, now. I’m willing to bet that the wraiths are connected to my “bigger bad” they, where Regina and Rumpelstiltskin will have to join forces against and even bigger evil. I’m guessing that these wraiths are the minions of the “bigger bad”.

a screencap of a wraith amulet
Spooky Amulet

The wraiths wear these amulets. If you touch one of these amulets, the wraiths will come after you and suck your soul out of your face à la Shang Tsung.

I tried to look up what this character was, but the closest I got was that it could be a stylized version of the Chinese character “wáng, which means “king”.

Heh. Stylized wang.

a screencap of the other side of the wraith amulet
The Other Side of the Spooky Amulet

The other side of the amulet has a different character on it. I couldn’t find any frames where it was clear, though.

a screencap of rumpelstiltskin/mr gold kissing belle
Why isn’t his curse being broken?

This bugged me. Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold kissed Belle, but his curse wasn’t broken. Are they not truly in love anymore?

a screencap of a palace in the fairy tale world
A Palace!

This is the beautiful palace that Aurora and Phillip were to live in, but that didn’t work out so well. We are never told where in the fairy tale world this palace is situated in.

a screencap of Agrabah from the disney movie, aladdin
Agrabah

The domes on the roof make it look a bit like the palace in Agrabah, though.

a screencap of emma swan and snow white laying unconscious after falling through to the fairy tale world
Why aren’t they dead?

So, Emma and Snow White fall through a magic portal to a fairy tale world and they bust a bunch of stuff up, but there’s not a scratch on them. It was a nice touch that they had Snow holding on to Emma’s jacket.

a screencap of belle looking drunk
Funny Freeze-Frame: Belle Looking Drunk